


Who Keeps Your Flame (Who Tells Your Story?)

by eruditeprincess



Series: Three million, one hundred and sixty six thousand, five hundred and sixty minutes (home to you) [2]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, basically bellamy's story, canon for post 4x13, mostly - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-11-06 22:50:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11045985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eruditeprincess/pseuds/eruditeprincess
Summary: Bellamy and Clarke have been separated for 2199 days. This is what he experiences.Title from Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story.





	Who Keeps Your Flame (Who Tells Your Story?)

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own anything. This is a companion to the first in this series.
> 
> Tumblr is erudite-princess, comments and kudos are appreciated and this is not checked over, so all mistakes are my own. Enjoy this! Remember to leave comments and kudos if you want!

_When our time is up,_

_Have we done enough?_

_Will they tell our story?_

He lets himself wait until they are far enough away from the formerly blue planet to let his tears fall within his suit. The salty drops wet the collar of his t-shirt, but he doesn’t care as they blast further and further away from her, from her now (presumably) irradiated body. His mind is bombarded with her final whispers on the radio, the interference crackling as the deadly cloud got closer, her voice telling them to _leave me behind_. His heart imploded in his chest when they reached the remains of the Ark, the bleak reality of their situation and her sacrifice facing him as he stepped back on.

 

In the first week of them landing, he examined the remains of their lives up on the Ark, before they went to Earth. He shouldn’t have been surprised that the prison wing was part of the main ring of the Ark, but he opened each door anyway, trying to find any identifying detail to see who lived in each room. Most of the rooms are devoid of any personal touches, either because those were for the short-term prisoners, right before they were expelled into the cold, dark space waiting to kill them, or because many prisoners didn’t care, but as he reached solitary, he found it harder to open each door, for the fear of not being able to see Clarke in any of those rooms. It was the final room that he reached that had obviously held her; the detailed drawings of trees and landscapes gave it away. One breath-taking picture was the one that breaks him, a picture of a forest with a clear blue lake at the centre. His heart was struck with a longing to hear her voice once more, to smell the clean Earth air and take in the view next to her. He didn’t go back to her cell very often, but tried to keep it clear of dust, just in case anyone else wanted to see it.

 

Their first month up on the station was hard, with Raven trying constantly to fix all of the issues and prolong their oxygen, just in case they needed to stay for longer than five years. The useless radio was in the central control room, the static crackling constantly, hopes of contacting the ground with each day the static persisted. He saw Echo staring at the Earth more than once, her fingers pressed to the glass separating them from the vacuum of space. His hand went to her shoulder once, and he saw her let out a lone tear, her breathing softer than he’d ever known it to be, before she turned and marched out of the control room as if nothing had happened.

 

The crackle of the radio lets up one day, 200 days into their separation, and he guesses it had let up before, when he wasn’t there to hear it. The connection is patchy, but her voice rings clear in the room, reassurances of _I’m fine down here, the ground is still a little bit too radioactive for me to be going outside but you wouldn’t believe how cool this sunset looked tonight, Bellamy, I hope you’re okay up there_ , and he almost laughed when he realised what this meant.

 

_She’s alive down there_ , he told Raven, but she only shook her head sadly.

_It’s probably your imagination,_ she told him, her lips pressing together in a way she only did when she was sharing bad news, _she couldn’t have survived that wave_.

 

He made sure Raven was there when she spoke again that night, the signal slightly stronger, saying _I think the animals might be coming back but in an even more mutated form Bellamy, I think I saw a five eyed frog outside the lab but I can’t be sure, I bet you’d know if you were down here with me_ and Raven stood next to him, whispering _holy fucking shit_ and he couldn’t help but agree with her.

 

It was 250 days in when Raven broke it to him that there was no way she could get them talking to Clarke on the ground, and he felt broken. Monty found him in her cell that night, and gave him a hug, everyone else eventually joining in and them all ending up in a tangle the next morning, He woke up to his head in Murphy’s back and his arm around Harper, but found that he didn’t mind as much. He pushed away the thought of _it could’ve been Clarke_ as he began his morning routine, slowly extracting himself from the lump of bodies curled together in the middle of her cell.

 

The days up there pass by in a blur, the monotonous work punctuated by her messages from Earth, always addressed to him but shared by the whole crew, their excitement about having someone waiting for them on Earth outweighing the sadness of not knowing the fate of the bunkers.

 

They celebrate birthdays up on the Ark, finding ways to display the date and everyone making an effort to make whoever is celebrating feel special. His birthday comes and goes in a blur, the crew trying to find gifts for him and clubbing together to give him a book Emori found in the Chancellor’s rooms, a book of Greek mythology, that makes him tear up. When Clarke’s message comes through, late that night when he’s the only one up, he tries to savour the gentle quiet, only interrupted by her voice, telling him about how _holy shit, today I saw a non-mutated dragonfly, Bellamy, it was amazing, you’d’ve loved it_ and he whispered into the radio, even though she wouldn’t be able to hear him, murmurs of _thank you_ and _I miss you_ and _I’ll see you soon, princess_.

 

Four years pass with ease, her messages getting more and more excitable as their return to Earth is merely a year away. She tells him of the nightblood she found a year earlier, a girl named Madi, and he smiles at the reverent way Clarke talks of Madi, imagining the little girl Clarke describes to him. She tells him across the year of the lessons she’s given Madi, and one day, he could hear the smile in her voice as she said _Madi called me mama for the first time today, it’s one of her first words in English and I’m so proud of her_ and he smiles.

 

Five years in, and the rocket isn’t ready to go. Raven warns him that it won’t be ready for another year, minimum, and Echo, surprisingly enough, is the first to comfort him, listening to him as he tells her _I need to go down there and see her, I want her to see I’m fine and I want to see she’s fine and I need to know she’s fine and that everyone else is fine_. Monty is next, whilst Harper awkwardly stood on the sidelines, the aftershocks from her and Monty’s quiet breakup making some things still slightly awkward for the two of them. He didn’t know why they broke up, but made sure they knew that they could talk to him if they needed it. They never took him up on that offer, but Harper did come to him one night and he let her sleep on a separate cot in his room.

 

2197 days after they went back to the Ark, Raven turned around and told them all they were going home. The smile almost split his face as Raven explained where they’d be landing, aiming for as close to where they originally blasted off from, and that night, when Clarke’s voice came through the radio, he began repeating _I’m gonna see you soon, princess, we’re coming home soon, princess, don’t you worry_.

 

2199 days after they went back to the Ark, they had a conversation again. Her voice came through the radio, and he found the button Raven told him to press when they re-entered the atmosphere, croaking out _Clarke?_ , hearing the overjoyed shout of _Bellamy!_ from her end, and he smiled as he began to speak to her, telling her _We’re entering the atmosphere. God, I’ve missed you so fucking much, princess. You couldn’t hear me down there, but I heard you up here. I heard every fucking word. Raven’s aiming for the largest patch of green, which I’m guessing is where you are, but I need you to hang on, okay? May we meet again was a promise, and I intend to keep that promise. I can’t wait to see you again, princess._

_It’s only a matter of time_ , she responded, voice full of joy, and his voice felt very thick as he repeated it to her.

 

They landed without a hitch, stumbling from the ship, unaccustomed to real gravity, as opposed to the artificial kind they’d been living with. It took Clarke the best part of a day to reach them, a small girl next to her, excitably exclaiming in trigedasleng that he didn’t understand. Clarke saw him and ran into his arms, the little girl next to her still talking, but he was lost in the feel of her. Her hair was shorter than it had been when he last saw her, but his arms still fit perfectly around her waist and he lifted her up, spinning her around as if to make her seem more real. He let Clarke down and watched as she stepped back. The little girl ran up to them upon Clarke’s nod, proclaiming herself to be Madi and shaking each of their hands. He watched Emori whisper something in Madi’s ear that made her grin from ear to ear, before she took Emori’s hand and led them to the rover.

 

The drive to Becca’s island was filled with laughter, as Clarke told stories of her people and them responding in kind, telling Madi about Clarke and her infamous strong stomach that let her down a metric fuck-ton of Monty’s moonshine and still be sober enough to balance a counter on her nose. Madi giggled along with them, with Clarke only having to translate for her when the conversation was too fast for her to otherwise follow. When they reached the lab, there was a quiet that washed over the rover, the strong memories of leaving Clarke behind hitting them once more. Clarke opened up the door to the lab, beckoning them in. He gasped as he walked in, hearing the others do so behind him, as pictures of all of them were revealed during their brief tour. He’d barely listened to the explanations she’d given them before the tour, taking in the surroundings. Clarke had populated a bookcase with books from before the first apocalypse, books with stars on the cover and weird titles. As she led them through the lab, past the spare rooms, Raven stopped at one, where the walls were adorned with her face and vines wrapping around it, with Bellamy’s next to it, and then everyone else’s faces following.

_You never forgot about us, did you?_ Raven questioned as Clarke pulled her into a hug, and she shook her head, responding with a quiet _no_. Murphy and Emori quickly claimed one of the rooms for themselves, with Echo following, and Monty and Harper departing in separate directions. Raven took the room with all of their faces in, whilst he followed Clarke back to the living room, talking about his years up in space. She seemed disbelieving that he’d found her cell, scoffing and asking him _how could you know that was my cell?_ , her face scrunched up in confusion. He wanted to kiss the expression off of her face, but she relaxed into his chest and the moment was gone. She began nuzzling into his chest, and he rested his chin on her head, muttering _Lexa would be proud of you, adopting your own little nightblood_. She didn’t openly balk at that, relaxing into his arms further and starting to snore.

 

He woke up with her in his arms.

 

He was startled when Madi crawled into his arms, 150 days after landing on Earth, and sleepily commanded him to _tell me a story, papa_. He was more startled about the _papa_ part than Madi crawling into his arms, but he obliged her, telling her the story of Persephone and Hades, letting his voice guide her to sleep. He didn’t see Clarke behind the doorframe, watching him press a kiss to Madi’s temple and caress her hair, laying her down on a pile of furs near the fire.

 

259 days after arriving on Earth, he kissed her. He was out on a foraging mission and he gave in to the instinct to press a small, dry kiss to her lips as he left. He ignored the cheers and whoops behind him as he shifted his bag on his shoulder, and didn’t see Clarke pressing her fingers to her lips.

 

He was ambushed by her when he made it back to his room that evening, her laying on his bed and pulling his belt loops to get him to her level, before pressing a tiny, dry kiss to his lips, a question. He responded enthusiastically, pulling her closer to him and letting her fingers dance up and down his arms.

 

When he woke up the next day, he saw her trying to cover up a rather large purple mark on her shoulder, and he smiled, knowing he left that there for her. She saw him, propped up on one elbow and staring at her, and threw his t-shirt at him, grumbling at him to _get dressed, we actually have to get out of bed and with you looking at me like that, that won’t happen_.

 

He proposed to her under a tree, a thin woven metal band binding their engagement together. When they got married, 954 days after landing on Earth, she smiled at him under the arch, and that was enough for him.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments?


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